Dr Kelly 'may have been murdered'

Three doctors yesterday cast grave doubts on Dr David Kelly's suicide and
suggested he may have been murdered.

They wrote an open letter claiming the weapons expert could not have taken
his own life in the way that has been suggested.

They alleged that the description outlined to the Hutton Inquiry was
"improbable" and insisted Dr Kelly did not die by slashing his wrist and taking
an overdose of painkillers.

The
59-year-old's body was found slumped next to a tree in a field near his home in
Oxfordshire last July. Police recovered a penknife, his glasses, some
painkillers and a bottle of water.

He died at the height of the row over the Government's "sexed up" dossier on
the Iraq threat and just days after giving evidence to MPs over his links to BBC
journalist Andrew Gilligan.

The three doctors - retired surgeon David Halpin, diagnostic radiologist
Stephen Frost and Searle Sennett, a retired specialist in anaesthesiology -
wrote to yesterday's Guardian newspaper expressing their doubts.

They questioned forensic pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt's view that Dr Kelly
bled to death from a self-inflicted wound to the left wrist.

The letter says he could not have died from such a small wound and with such
a small amount of painkillers in his bloodstream.

The artery

The letter says the artery supposedly severed by Dr Kelly could not have
produced enough blood to kill him.

It says: "Arteries on the wrist are of matchstick thickness and severing them
does not lead to life-threatening blood loss.

"Dr Hunt stated that the only artery cut - the ulnar artery - had been
completely transected. Complete transection causes the artery to quickly retract
and close down and this promotes clotting of the blood."

Dr Hunt revealed, however, there had been five "incised wounds" including the
cut to the "completely severed" ulnar artery. It is also a fact that Dr Kelly's
body was not found for several hours after he went missing.

The blood

The letter questions how much blood was found. "The ambulance team reported
that the quantity of blood at the scene was minimal and surprisingly small," it
adds.

"To have died from haemorrhage, Dr Kelly would have had to lose about five
pints of blood - it is unlikely that he would have lost more than a pint."

Dr Hunt, however, told the Hutton Inquiry that a substantial amount of blood
had been found on and around Dr Kelly's body.

In particular, there was a patch of blood stains "two to three feet long"
next to his body.

There were also blood patches on his neck, face, trousers, arms, elbows,
right hand and fingers.

Dr Hunt told the inquiry: "The most obvious area of bloodstaining was around
the left wrist, where it was relatively heavy.

"The arterial injury had resulted in the loss of a significant volume of
blood, as noted at the scene."

He later added: "There were no signs of defensive injuries and by that I mean
injuries that occur as a result of somebody trying to parry blows from a weapon
or trying to grasp a weapon."

The painkillers

The doctors say Dr Kelly could not have died from the painkillers that were
thought to be missing from the blister packs found next to his body. The inquiry
heard 29 tablets were unaccounted for.

They say: "Although levels of Co-Proxamol (the painkiller) in the blood were
higher than therapeutic levels, Allan (the forensic toxicologist) conceded that
the blood level of each of the drug's two components was less than a third of
what would normally be found in a fatal overdose."

In his evidence to Lord Hutton, Dr Hunt has always accepted that the
painkillers alone could not have killed Dr Kelly. He said there was one
microgramme of painkiller per millilitre of blood along with a small amount of
paracetamol.

Checks on his lungs did not reveal the presence of a volatile chemical such
as chloroform. There was also an amount of vomit found around his mouth and on
his clothes.

Heart disease

Dr Hunt said an examination of Dr Kelly's arteries revealed a "hardening" -
suggesting the onset of coronary heart disease.

"It was noted that he has a significant degree of coronary artery disease and
this may have played some small part in the rapidity of death but not the major
part in the cause of death," he said.

He was asked: "What is your opinion as to the major factor involved in Dr
Kelly's death?" He replied: "It is the haemorrhage as a result of the incised
wounds to his left wrist."

He said death would have been "hastened" by the presence of the painkillers
and coronary heart disease.

Last night Mr Halpin, 63, of Newton Abbot, Devon, stood by his theory. He
said: "When I heard, in the eyes of the toxicologist, he hadn't taken a lethal
dose of painkillers I thought I ought to express doubt, as a citizen with some
specialist knowledge.

"If someone asked me what happens with a cut ulnar artery, even with a decent
scalpel, I don't accept that the majority should die."

Dr Sennett, 70, said: "My argument is that possibly he was alive when he was
found but unconscious and someone interfered with him - not in a malicious way,
but in a well-meaning way.

"Perhaps someone moved him, and thought they would prop him up by a tree to
make him comfortable.

"He would then have choked to death on his own tongue as he was unconscious."

Dr Frost is currently employed as a GP in a medical centre at RAF Cosford in
the Midlands. He was unavailable for comment last night.

Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner, who is considering holding a full
inquest into the death, said yesterday he had received "numerous" letters
questioning the account given to Lord Hutton.